


Claw Foot Love Story

by ScreamQueenBee (screamqueenbee)



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M, Mermaid Roy, PA Jason, Wrestler Kory, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 08:17:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4297389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamqueenbee/pseuds/ScreamQueenBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason Todd works for the most powerful family in Gotham City, but he never expected that to lead to a merman living in his bath tub.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jason didn’t know how he ended up in a place like this, clammy hands slipping over the very expensive camera in his pocket and the eyes of men in smeared grease paint on him like they knew exactly what he doing. God, he hoped that none of those guys had worked for Two Face with his dad, because he needed to be recognized like he needed a hole in his fucking head.  Which was probably exactly what they would do to him if they caught him. This wasn’t his wheelhouse by any stretch; Jason was a PA, he got coffee and files and dry cleaning, not photographs of potential criminal activity.

But he needed the money Richard Grayson-Wayne had offered him for this, which was more than he was paid in six months for a couple of hours putting his photography degree to work. The engine in Jason’s car shit out in the god damn parking lot of Wayne Tower, right in front of his boss. Towing it back to his apartment had maxed his credit card out, not to mention that a new engine for his dad’s junker was going to cost a fucking fortune. So when he went into work that morning and his boss had offered him the job for a check with _that_ many zeros in it, Jason couldn’t exactly refuse.

A couple of pictures, then he could get _the fuck_ out of Amusement Mile.

Jason didn’t even know what he was looking for, other than “Things out of the ordinary.” _Gee, thanks Dick. This is Gotham and you sent me to a freak show, there’s nothing ordinary about this._

Bodies, more excited to gawk at the self-titled “freaks” of the Amusement Mile Freak Show, pushed him into the stained and singed tent. There were rumors that the guy who ran Amusement Mile bought it off Haley’s Circus, because two of the greatest circus performers fell to their deaths underneath it. That guy was a sadist of the worst kind, and Jason knew that Mr. Wayne had tried many times to get the Mile shut down and that man locked up. Nothing ever seemed to stick to him.

There were canvas barriers that separated the performers, Jason couldn’t bring himself to use the word that the barkers used, and painted canvas that described the people underneath them. It was dirty and dark, sawdust and dirt kicked up into the air by the people moving around, he could barely see the main attraction. Hopefully it didn’t totally wreck the camera; it was the best camera he’d had in his hands for a long time.

Nothing really caught his eye as he moved almost automatically from stall to stall. A lot of it seemed like standard circus performances: acrobats and contortionists, things like that. Nothing untoward about that, but also nothing that screamed freak show to him. Ahead of him was a part of the tented that was completely closed off from the rest of the tent, people were cheering and clapping inside. Jason didn’t like the sound of it.

He pushed back the curtain and was immediately bathed in rippling blue light. People were crowded all around a tank in the center of the space, and a guy in greasepaint and a tail coat was standing on a catwalk above it.

He almost high-tailed it right then and there. He knew that man; Jason’s dad had worked for him briefly before joining up with Two-Face. _The Joker._

 Jason couldn’t see what was inside just that it was splashing around. People closest to it let out a shocked gasp as water sloshed over the tank along with a wave of foul scent. The Joker prowled along the metal catwalk, jabbing at whatever was inside the tank with a prod and a snap of electricity. The thing inside the tank screamed, too human to not make Jason nervous. There was a soft gurgle of water and barely audible whimpering, almost lost in the whispers of the crowd.

_That couldn’t be legal…_

He pushed his way through the crowd, closer to the tank with his camera poised in his hands. Jason could see that the tank was similar to ones that people in the circus escaped from, small with a rusted metal frame holding the scratched glass together. Rivulets of murky green water leaked from the frame and onto the sawdust and litter-strewn floor. He couldn’t immediately see what was inside because the water was so dirty, but he could tell that there was something there. And he could tell it was big, the scaly shape of its body coiled more than halfway up the tank, pressing the glass outward.

“That’s it for tonight, folks!” The Joker said with a grand sweep of his arms, the cables holding the catwalk up singing under tension. The stun stick sparked menacingly overhead and Jason found himself being pushed by the clowns from outside. The man cackled, and it sent sparks of fear down the back of his neck. “Our little mermaid’s all tuckered out for now, but he’ll be back up to sparkle tomorrow night! Be sure to come back and see us!”

He didn’t get a chance to get a clear photograph of the tank before one of the guys shoved his shoulder so hard it almost knocked the camera right out his hands. But he knew he couldn’t leave without evidence of w _hatever_ the Joker had in his possession. Jason trailed out with the rest of the crowd, and he hated to do it, but if he didn’t those goons were going to come after him. Jason had seen what the clowns had down to his dad once when he was young. And they’d done it, literally, for the shits and giggles.

The truck Dick had lent him was parked in the grass about a mile off, and there was no way he could make it there and back without being caught by one of the clowns. So Jason hid in the nearest Midway stall, between moldy stuffed prizes and cigarette butts, and watched until he saw the Joker leave the freak show’s tent.

The Mile didn’t really close, as far as Jason knew, so people were still prowling around the grounds when he snuck across the massive expanse between the Midway and the Freak Show tent. No one must have seen him because Jason got into the tent without issue.

The rippling blue lights were still on, illuminating the tank from all sides. Jason raised the camera and snapped off pictures of the tent surrounding the center tank, the whole time straining to hear any movement that meant he’d been caught. For the first time, he saw the sign for this exhibit.

_Mysterious, Mythic Man Fish from the Deep!_

_Sings! Splashes! Pictures $100_

“You better be good for this, Dick…” He said under his breath, because like hell was he risking his ass for some rich kid if he couldn’t pay up. Especially with the Joker and the clowns.

Water sloshed over the sides of the tank as soon as he spoke, startling Jason. He turned and saw the scaly tail coiling and unfurling in the water, gripping his camera like a weapon. Which wasn’t exactly logical, Jason would later decide.

Sharp, pale fingers curled over the rusted metal and the thing in the tank pulled itself elbow height out of the water. Jason’s breath caught in his throat as the thing… man, revealed himself.

Jason wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t what he was seeing in front of him. He stepped closer and stared first at the long, slender arms of the man in the tank. His skin and claws were pale blue, mottled with dark purple, yellow, and green bruising, and raised spines running from his wrists to elbows. His face was hidden from view behind a tangled mess of red hair, but he could see what looked suspiciously like burns on his neck and shoulder.

A frightened whimper escaped the man’s mouth when Jason moved towards him, sinking back into the murky water with a splash. The coils of thick tail moved to hide the rest of his body.

“Whoa, whoa, hey!” Jason rushed to the side of the tank and pressed his face to the glass, trying to see him through the scratched glass. His original purpose forgotten, he decided then and there that he couldn’t leave this man here, especially after what he’d seen during the show. He could leave anyone under the control of the Joker, no matter who they were. “I’m going to get you out, okay? But you have to trust me.”

The man came up out of the water again, his face eager and frightened and wary, which Jason could more than understand. A second later, he actually _saw_ the man’s face and instantly felt anger rise up in his throat. He looked like one of the bodies GCPD dragged out of the river, bloated and bruised to the point of being unrecognizable.

“I’m going to get you out.” He repeated, stuffing the camera deep into the pocket of his jacket and starting assessing the tank’s structure. Thankfully it had wheels, but they were rusted like the rest of the metal. The frame and glass looks sturdy enough to make it to the truck, he didn’t care what happened to it after that.

Jason gave it an experimental push and the rusted wheels screeched, but moved a couple of inches. He pushed it again, the wheels continued to protest the movement. Okay, that wasn’t going to work.

“Okay.” He said to the man. “I have to go get the truck, but I promise I’ll be right back.”

He made a low distressed sound and started to push more of his body out of the tank to get out.

“No, no, no! Hold on, I _promise_ I’ll be back, I just need to get the truck because I can’t get you out otherwise.” Jason assured, putting his hands up in case the man didn’t understand him. “I’m coming back, I’m not going to leave you here.”

There was a second of silence, then the man nodded, slipping into the tank to hide in the coils of his tail.

Jason looked back at the tank once, then started running towards the field. The truck was the only over there and it took a minute before Jason was unlocking the driver’s door, panting hard and fingers shaking. He hoped that no one was around to catch him, but then again, Jason didn’t really care. He’d just run them down trying to get away with the man in the tank. It wasn’t like they’d go to the police, and the car wasn’t even his, there was no way they could track him

The engine roared to life and he slammed the truck in reverse, leaving blackened tracks in the grass between the field and the tent, the side of the truck bed scraped on the side of the tank and the man gave a startled shriek before Jason got out.

Jason heard shouting in the distance and the chilling sound of the Joker’s voice sounded closer than the rest of them.

He was already trying to climb out when Jason climbed up into the bed to meet him. His skin was slick with whitey slime, making him harder to grip, but Jason helped him get his torso into the empty truck bed. The man just laid on his side and gasped, the gills on his neck flapping frantically, while Jason hauled the rest of him out of the stinking water. There had to be at least six feet of scaled tail to him, and it curled and writhed like a snake around his feet, he pulled off his leather jacket and draped it over as much of the man as he could.

“Just hold on,” He said as the shouting got closer to them. The man nodded and Jason jumped out and back into the truck cabin. Jason floored the gas pedal just in time for the first group of clowns reached the tent, they managed to jump back in time to keep from getting hit by the truck. Jason wouldn’t have minded if he’d taken a few of them out, but he had more important things to worry about, like not get himself and the mermaid man caught by clowns. “Just on hold a couple minutes longer, we’re going to get out of here.”

There was a clear path in front of them that Jason hoped led to the highway, but he gunned the truck in that direction anyway, way from Amusement Mile and away from the Joker.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason takes the merman home and the Family meets him.

The drive back to Jason’s apartment was surprisingly quiet for having just stolen a merman from a freak show run by the most terrifying man in Gotham City. It started raining just after they high-tailed it out of the Mile and Jason thanked his lucky stars for it. The heavy thump of raindrops against the windows gave him something to focus on. It gave him time to think about how stupid his actions had been; Jason knew next to nothing about fish, even less about taking care of them. And the merman in the back of his truck was about as sick as Jason figured they could get. He kept checking on him through the window that separated the cabin from the bed, but all he could see was loops of diseased looking tail and a ragged and blackened fin.

Jason drove faster.

His apartment was on top floor of one of the oldest apartment buildings in the neighborhood and he’d inherited it from his dad when he got locked up last and his mom had died. He had no idea how he was going to get the half-dead man up there without injuring him further, or what he was going to once they got up there.

He parked the truck in the back of his building where the maintenance elevator was and got out. The man had somehow gotten his arms into Jason’s jacket, almost looking like he was asleep if Jason was absolutely sure he was dead.

“There’s no way.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking around for anything that could help him move the remarkably heavy man. There was nothing except rough wooden pallets and the red asbestos dumpster. “Oh, fuck. There’s no way.”

Jason grabbed his phone from the back of the jacket, punching in Kory’s number and praying she was home. She had a match downtown that night, but he hoped that she either hadn’t left yet or it had finished. The phone rang twice before it connected, Kory’s voice sounded far off when she answered.

“Talk, I want to get in bed at a decent hour tonight.” She must have had him on speaker, which meant that she was back from her match, which meant Jason didn’t feel that bad about bothering her. Kory’s entire family worked in martial arts and they were strong, he’d seen Kory lift grown ass men like they were made of paper. She was strong and beautiful and Jason’s best friend and he needed her to help him move a half-dead fishman into his bathtub.

“Come down the maintenance elevator, I need your help moving something important.” Jason said, checking the merman’s pulse with his fingers because what else was he supposed to do? The pale gills fluttered against his fingertips. The feathery insides were barely wet with rain and white fuzz clung to them. That couldn’t be good. Maybe Kory knew about fish. He hoped Kory knew about fish.

“Fuck off, Jason. I’m tired.” Kory whined tinnily over the phone’s speaker. She sounded exhausted, he felt a little bit worse.

“I really need your help, Kor. I’ll feed you for the next two weeks if you help me for ten minutes.” He begged, after a second there was a long-suffering sigh on her end and the sound of her getting up. “I’ll be down in a second. And you owe me 6 am protein shakes for the next month.”

“Alright, deal. Just hurry.” He clicked the phone off and put it back in his pocket.

The merman’s tail, Jason still couldn’t get over just how _massive_ it was, started moving and scraping against the textured floor. Dull scales sloughed off in handfuls, leaving bloody smears on the dark non-slip surface. He put a hand on the thick muscle near the merman’s hip in what he hoped was a calming gesture. The movement of the tail stopped, even though Jason could still feel the muscles underneath twitching.

“What the _hell_ is that?” Jason turned when Kory stepped back, fascination and something like fear on her face. She was in pink lace bathrobe over her ring gear, and her hair was pinned up in massive rollers. “I’m not moving that, it smells like low tide at the nursing home.”

“I rescued him,” He explained, hefting the man’s shoulders and torso into his arms. “And he’s hurt, help me get him upstairs.”

Kory rolled her eyes and got his tail around her shoulders. Jason was surprised that she didn’t comment on the fact that they were taking a _merman_ and going to hide him in his apartment. But maybe she’d lived in Gotham too long that this wasn’t the strangest thing she’d ever seen. Maybe there were fishpeople where she came from, he never asked and she never talked about it. “Ew, he’s covered in slime. Where did you get him?”

Jason laughed nervously as he jabbed the up button to the elevator. The merman’s forehead fell between his shoulder and neck, warming Jason’s skin with unnatural heat. “Uh, I got him from the Mile.” Kory stopped dead where she was standing, the look on her face angry.

“You stole him from the Jokers?!”  He couldn’t stand the exasperated tone in her voice, because it usually meant that he’d done something really stupid.

“They were torturing him!”

Kory’s face softened minutely and she adjusted the tail so it sat more comfortably on her shoulders. “How are you going to take care of him? He needs medical attention and he needs it now, Jason. And what about the people here? If the Joker followed you, he followed you right here to our home.”

“I couldn’t think about that just then, I just knew that I had to help him because no one else was going to.” The elevator pinged and the pair carried him between them and into Jason’s corner apartment. “Do you know how many people were there when I was, just watching the Joker hurt him? _Hundreds,_ Kor, and God knows how many people before that. I couldn’t let it happen anymore.” Jason shook his head and jerked his head in the direction of the tub. “Just help me get him in the bath and then you don’t have to be part of it anymore, I promise.”

Kory didn’t say anything, just followed Jason into his cramped bathroom and helped him arrange the injured man in his ancient tub. He was far too long for the space, even though Jason’s tub was bigger than standard one. Jason turned the shower on full blast, a shocked noise escaped the merman and he started thrashing around before he could stop it. The thick tail whacked him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him for a minute before the creature settled back. He grabbed a bunch of towels, soaked him them in the sink, and laid them over the exposed tails, hoping that it would also weigh it down so he didn’t get hit by it again.

Kory came back, having changed into one of Jason’s old t-shirts, with her phone in her hand and her arms crossed over her chest. “I called Leslie, she said she’s making a house call right now but she’ll be here as soon as she can. Until then, we can clean him up a little.”

She dropped her phone onto the bathroom sink and they set to work cleaning up the smaller injuries on him. Kory scraped off the white fuzz from his pineconed tail which, upon a quick googling, turned out to be a fungus common in neglected fish on top of dropsy while Jason flushed the cuts on his face with peroxide. Every time they finished patching up one injury, there was another one even worse to fix.

“What the hell were you doing at the Mile?” Kory asked, not looking up from the infected line of stitches at the merman’s hips, were scales had obviously been ripped out to create a sudden transition between smooth skin and scale. It made him look like he’d been stitched together, which was no doubt the intention.

It made Jason sick to watch, especially since it looked like they used piano wire instead of thread. “I was on a job, taking pictures.”

She shook her head and sat back, pushing strands of stray hair out of her face. Someone knocked at the front door and she groaned in protest of getting up to answer it. “I really hope it was worth it.”

Dr Leslie Thompkins was responsible for single-handedly getting teenaged delinquent Jason Todd’s ass onto the straight and narrow. She’d found him practically dead in an alley and brought him into her clinic, basically saving his life. He’d stolen a case of drugs to thank her for it, but then Batman broke his arm trying to catch him, and Leslie had appointed herself his guardian ever since. She was old then, but she looked even older as she strode purposefully into the bathroom with Kory in tow. Her hands were firmly planted on her hips, her medical bag slung over one shoulder.

“It’s always something with you two, isn’t it?” Leslie turned a stern look on each of them, Jason felt instantly rebuked. “I guess three now. Who is this and what happened to him?”

Jason leaned against the edge of the bathtub while Leslie checked the unconscious man more carefully than they had before, recounting what he had seen to her in as much detail as he could. Leslie had seen far stranger things in all her years of working in Gotham, and too many people to count owe her their lives.

But as skilled as Leslie was, there was only so much she could do for someone who wasn’t human. Two and a half hours later, the older woman stood up, looking exhausted but satisfied with her work. “That’s all we can do tonight. He needs rest and quiet,” She patted Jason’s cheek as he walked her to her car. “And so do you. I’ll be back in a week to see how our friend is doing, but don’t hesitate to call if something happens.”

Jason assured her that he would and told her to call when she got home, watching her drive off into the night before he went back upstairs to check on Kory and the merman.

Kory was stretched out on his couch, watching tv under the blanket off his bed and eating his Chinese food. She looked completely at home and at ease, watching some documentary about fish. A legal pad sat on her knee and she was taking down notes.

“I’m guessing you’re staying here tonight?”

She nodded vaguely, not taking her eyes off the television while he went into the kitchen and grabbed the other container of leftovers to finish up. He really wanted those drunken noodles, but gnocci and meatballs would just have to do.

“Already made myself at home, besides,” She moved her feet so Jason could sit down, then put them right back in his lap. He glanced over at the legal pad, figuring there would be a trip to the pet shop in the very near future. “I want to know what happens with your guest.”

Jason shrugged and stabbed a meatball from his leftover pasta. “He heals up, and we take him back to wherever he belongs. That’s what’s going to happen.”

“What if he doesn’t want to go?”

He laughed at that, loud and long enough for it to annoy Kory. “Who the fuck wants to stay here?” The idea was ludicrous, no one wanted to stay with him and you only stayed in Gotham because you literally had no other choice. If Jason could leave, he would do it without a second thought. “Trust me, after all he’s been through, he’ll want to go home as soon as possible.”

Kory nodded thoughtfully before switching topics. “Did you get what you went there for?”

“Yeah, I just have to deliver the film to Grayson and then give the camera back,” Jason sighed longingly, he really loved that camera…

Kory gave him a look, already starting to bristle. She didn’t particularly like Jason’s boss, they had a bad history that Jason valued his genitals too much to pry into. He knew it happened when they were younger and two other girls, but he left it at that. “Dick Grayson sent you to the Mile, just to take pictures?”

“He also paid me, Kor. I couldn’t _not_ take the job,” He put the empty dish on the coffee table and picked up the list she was worked on so he didn’t have to look at her. “Dad’s fucking lemon p.o.s. broke down right in the parking lot, I had to get it towed and Dick was right there. He offered and with the check that he handed me _we can move out of here.”_

“Yeah but you didn’t have to take Dick Grayson’s money to do it.” Kory ran her fingers through her hair then rubbed her temples like a headache was coming on. “But we can’t worry about that now. We’ve got bigger, fishy problems.”

Jason could help but lean over to look into his bathroom, the merman seemed to be resting peacefully, still wrapped up in Jason’s jacket. He couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when he woke up, Jason was entirely sure what he expected Jason would do with him. Almost certainly not keeping him in a bathroom in an apartment, but Jason was sure he would die if they took him…. wherever.

“I hope he’s going to be alright.” He said under his breath, not sure what they would do if he wasn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on an AU that I rped with my amazing Roy, and they are 100% responsible for the awesomeness of the storyline.


End file.
